MUNSTER BACK ROW Niall Ronan is in line to return to first team action this weekend, two months after his latest injury set-back.
The natural open side suffered cruciate ligament damage in Munster’s January Heineken Cup meeting with Castres and had to watch from the sidelines as one era drew ingloriously to an end, and another began.
Having turned 30 the week before his scoring return against the Dragons season, the lengthy lay-off naturally pulled his mind to the prospect of ending his professional career.
After all, younger men than he have been forced to end their Munster dream prematurely – his one-time peers Barry Murphy and Ian Dowling also turned 30 this year.
“The long-term injury is probably the hardest one,” Ronan told RedFM this week, “because I had issues with my hip aswell when I was recovering from my knee, and there were days you wondered; ‘would I ever recover at all?’
Ahead of this weekend’s Pro12 clash with the Llanelli Scarlets, Ronan says the injuries which cost him most of 2012 are: “All cleared up now, thank God.”
Adding, “I obviously had a long term-knee injury which I thought was… well, I was back, but then got a groin injury which set me back for the last four or five weeks.”
A week after his try in the September bonus-point win over Dragons, he was forced off again as Munster were reminded of just how much they must improve by the Ospreys.
“It is frustrating,” he says of the latest spell out of action, “but I look at the positive side of things and I’m back now and if I can get an opportunity over the next couple of weeks, there’s a lot of big games coming up and hopefully I can get a chance to play in a few of them and enjoy them at the same time.”
Being fit and well is one thing, but the Meathman hopes to cash in on the extra bonus of the style of play employed by Rob Penney.
Enjoyment
“I’m enjoying Rob’s game plan, it’s very exciting and it’s the type of game I love to play. You get a lot of ball and play into space which is enjoyable. If you do your role as a seven and work hard, it’s very enjoyable.”
As a soft-handed, free-spirit of an openside; Ronan’s ability in the loose could well add yet another dimension to the ‘new’ Munster ethos. However, with the arrival of CJ Stander and the form of Sean Dougall, Ronan is fully aware he must take his chance this weekend and run with it.
“Chances don’t come around all that often. You can’t just ease your way back into the team. I’m preparing myself for that and hopefully it goes well.”
Audio courtesy of RedFM’s Big Red Bench, follow them on Twitter – @BigRedBench
